Matt Slick Q&A - 5/17/17

We are live, that's good. All right, we've got a few left over stragglers who are here. We're not doing eschatology. Selfish people wanna know about the future, sheesh. And so we don't have as many people here now, but if you have questions, now's the time, fire questions.

If not, we'll get online and have questions. There are questions online? Haven't seen any come on through? Come on. If you have questions, come up to the microphone or up to that tape right there.

Put your $5 in the thing. All right, for you, $20. Okay, Matt, what is the best way that you've seen in the local church to serve God through apologetics?

Everybody serves in apologetics by simply answering questions, by simply just giving a reason for the hope that lies within them, 1 Peter 3 .15. The best way is just to ask God to use you and then at the opportunities, like at a grocery store.

I come here each Wednesday and I go right over there and I buy oranges. They have a certain kind here that they don't have where I live. And I saw the name tag of a woman, Mercedes. So I walked up, I said, what's your favorite car?

And she didn't get it. She did something, but it was an attempt to start a conversation and hopefully build a witness. But small things, little things, big things, just ask God to use you and just give it a shot.

And I'll tell you that if you ask him to show you what you need to know, then what he'll do is he'll put you in situations where you don't have answers. Go study. And in the church, go to Bible studies in your church and just wreak havoc, accuse people of heresy, throw things at people in Bible studies.

It's a lot of fun. See what happens. She's smiling. She knows I'm kidding about the throwing stuff. Yeah. Yeah, I don't go to Bible studies anymore because I ruin them. I do. Especially when they start talking, I go,.

What'd you say? What was that? And I go, what? Yo. How do you fight heresy? Or fight heresy? In your local church. In the local church.

Go to the teacher first. Because you go to the one who's committed the error and if they won't listen, you go to the elders, the pastor, the elders, you go to them. And if they don't listen, you go to the congregation.

Now, if it's a female teacher teaching a female study, should you go to her husband or to her?

Well, I would go to the husband first. I'm not sure if that's exactly right. That's what I would do. I'd go to the husband because you're trying not to usurp his position as her head and just trying to be respectful and say, you know, I'm not trying to be disrespectful to your wife, but I'm coming to you and she has said, blah, blah, blah.

And then, you know, talk about it. And, you know, of course, be very careful. You're talking about a man's wife. You know how we can get defensive. So, you know, I'd just be packing. Have your AK on you and talk to him.

Flak vest and what? You don't have to tell me this. Oh, that's right. He's a cop. That's why. So, you'll come in all decked out and everything. And then you can say it. He'd chill it. Okay, whatever. Have your handcuffs in your fingers, swirling them around, you know.

I'm ready to go at it. Yeah, you're ready to go at it. I always have good ideas. Okay, any other questions? No other questions? Small group tonight. How about online? No, they're wimping out on us. They're wimping out on us.

I don't have any questions on my phone. Got a question? We'll go back to. No, I said good questions, important stuff. No, I don't have a good question.

Where Do the Dead Go and What Happens After Death?

I'll sit down. All right. With eschatology, speaking of death, where do the dead go? It depends if you're saved or not. Well, so specifically thinking of saved, immediately when you die, it says to be absent from the bodies, to be present with the Lord.

So in Corinthians 5 .8. So where does that? With the Lord. So they're there now in heaven? With the Lord. Okay. Lord's in heaven?

No, the Old Testament is different. Because we have the covenant ratification with the death of Christ. Hebrews 8 .13, Hebrews 9 .15 -16. So now, plus he led captive a host of captives. Ephesians 4 talks about that.

So some people think he took the people who died in faith before his crucifixion, gave them the gospel message, not to get them saved, but to inform them, and then ascended into heaven. That's one view.

And there, so. But to be absent from the bodies, be home with Jesus. Jesus is with God the Father in heaven. We'll go to heaven. 2 Corinthians 5 .8. And then 2 Corinthians 12 .2, 14 years ago, whether in the body or out of the body, do not know, but such a man was caught up to the third heaven.

Third heaven means the dwelling place of God in Jewish cosmology. So you can go be with the Lord. I'm looking forward to it. Getting there is the problem. I don't want to go through the process of, you know, walking like this, you know, like that, and then, you know, comb my hair, you know, I'm not looking forward to that.

You know, I just want to be vibrant and going, and 92, 98 preaching the word from the pulpit. And this is why you can't talk, you know, and go out swinging. Okay.

The Thousand-Year Reign of Christ and Amillennialism

Thousand year reign of Christ? Yes. I'm for it. There'll still be those who will fall away. You're in a thousand years? What's a thousand years?

A thousand years. Is it a literal thousand years, or is it a figurative thousand years? In Revelation 20, saw an angel coming down from heaven with a key and a great chain in his hand. The key's not literal, the chain's not literal, but to take the dragon, the devil, a dragon is figurative, devil, literal, and threw him in the bottomless pit for a thousand years.

Literal or figurative? It's just a question, literal or figurative? Some people say, well, it's literal. Well, how do you know? Because that's what it says, a thousand. Okay, God owns a cattle in a thousand hills.

Literal or figurative? Well, it is literal. He does own a thousand. How about a thousand and one? You know, it's a figurative usage. Days but a thousand years, a thousand years but a day. 2 Peter 3 .10, I think it is.

So, you know, it's in a figurative context. Now, we went over the eschatological issue of amillennialism about two weeks ago. You guys were here for that, right? Pretty convincing, wasn't it? Yeah? What?

It is really convincing. And I believe, this is my opinion, we're in the millennial reign of Christ now that it's a figurative period. And in Matthew 12, 22 to 32, Jesus said, Saint was already bound.

He says that right there. In order to cast demons out or to plunder the strong man's house, he must first be bound. That's what he says. And also to throw a monkey wrench into things, there's only two ages, there's this age and the age to come.

And at the end of this age, the resurrection happens, the judgment occurs, the new heavens, new earths are made, the rapture occurs and things like that. And, you know, so I can go into a bunch of stuff.

We've already gone over it several times recently, but there's a very, very, very, very good argument for amillennialism. And when people say amillennialism is heresy, they do not know what they're talking about and they should keep quiet.

They can say, I don't agree with that position. Okay. But when they call it heresy, that's just showing their profound lack of study and their ignorance and their prejudicial position. They don't have to agree with it, that's okay.

Okay. But there are people who do that. I've actually lost teaching positions and opportunities because of my amillennialism. It's ridiculous, you know. Well, but you know, I hope it's pre-tribulation rapture.

That's what I hope. I'm hoping. Except that when Jesus comes back, the first one's taken out of the wicked, not the good. Matthew 13, 39.

Mark Carlo King from Facebook said, Kenneth Copeland just said that a man died because he went against his ministry, Kenneth Copeland's ministry. Really? I wanna see that quote. Yeah, I'd like to see that too.

In terms of scripture, how would one reply to this statement as he said that we should not go against God's unwitting?

Well, actually since the break, let's see, woe to them for they have gone the way of Cain and for pay they have rushed headlong into the air of Balaam and have perished in the rebellion of Korah. That's Jude 11.

Second Peter 2 .2. Many will follow their sin. Why don't we just do 2 .1. But false prophets also rose among the people just as there will also be false teachers among you who will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the master who bought them, bringing swift destruction upon themselves.

Many will follow their sensuality and because of them, the way of the truth will be maligned. And in their greed, they will exploit you with false words. Their judgment for long ago is not idle and the destruction is not asleep.

Kenneth Copeland's a heretic. And if someone says someone died because he went against his ministry, that is my surprise is why is Kenneth Copeland still alive? I mean, seriously, he's preached so much heresy.

I think people like Kenneth Copeland and Benny Hinn are part of the judgment upon the church. Seriously, that those false teachers are there, part of the judgment of the church because the church doesn't have the ability apparently, overall, to resist false teachings.

And what this is gonna lead to is the apostasy. And what that leads to is the arrival of the Antichrist. He's coming.

Nero, False Teachers, and the Judgment on the Church

Do you believe Nero was the Antichrist?

He was an Antichrist, Nero in the 60s. And I don't know the math in the Gematria of his words, but 616, Nero comes out to 616 or 666. I haven't studied it for a long time. He was definitely an Antichrist.

And people who had heard Jesus warn about when you see these things occur, flee to the hills. A lot of them did flee to the hills in that period of time and were saved in the persecution. And Nero was an evil man who would have orgies and gluttonous feasts and take Christians and put them up on poles and cover them with oil and tar and light them on fire, alive, in order to light their orgies.

Remember, your best life now. This crap that's being taught on TV, your best life now, the power of I am. I'm not a sinner anymore. Jesus died to sanctify your ego trip. That's what Robert Schuller taught out of the Christian cathedral.

I don't know if they're saved or not, but they don't sound saved. They sound like false converts. And we need to make sure that we're not false converts. We need to make sure that we believe in the essentials of the Christian faith.

Maybe I'll do another thing on those essentials and what those are so that we can make sure we know. And we need to clean house. We need to clean our own church.

Why the Bible Is True and How We Know It

Speaking of the essentials, you always talk about what does the Bible say? Can you explain why the Bible is true? Because it says so beyond just because it says so. Can you use a little bit more detail on that?

It's true because it was written by the prophets and the prophets had certain abilities that demonstrate their authority coming from God. Like, you know, separating an ocean by raising a staff, you know, things like that, plagues.

Moses wrote the Pentateuch. And then there were others who wrote things in the Old Testament. And then Jesus, God in flesh, who authenticated the Old Testament, Luke 11, 41, or the 53, I forgot which, where he said from the blood of Abel to the blood of Zechariah.

Let me see which one. I gotta memorize that. I always get these wrong. Luke 11, let's see. Let's try 53. No, that's not it. 51, thank you very much. Now, from the blood of Abel to the blood of Zechariah, who was killed between the altar and the house of God, yes, I tell you, they shall be charged against this generation.

Now, we know that Jesus in his temptation refuted Satan by quoting scripture. And Jesus also quoted all areas of the Graf Wellhausen theory, the documentary hypothesis, J-E-D-P, letter topic. Go to my website and read about that.

But what he did here, the blood of Abel to the blood of Zechariah. Abel's the book of Genesis, Zechariah's Chronicles. It's equivalent to our Malachi because they have the same books we do in the Old Testament.

They just had them arranged this way. We had them arranged this way. And when they had them arranged their way, Chronicles was the last one. It's like saying Malachi. It's like quoting something from Genesis and then saying Malachi.

It's like saying from Genesis to Malachi, blah, blah, blah. And by saying that, what he's doing is saying this is the Old Testament scripture. The Apocrypha was not authenticated by Jesus in that. So then in the New Testament, he called Paul the apostle.

Then we have the apostles. And so the apostles wrote the scriptures. And so what do you do? Paul the apostle called by Jesus performing miracles, et cetera, writes a letter to you at your church, writes a letter to your church.

What do you do? Well, that's his opinion. I mean, someone says, you don't know who he is. Who's this Paul guy? Well, let me tell you about him. Oh, what? Oh, ah, okay, well, that's different. And then when he says, the Lord's telling you, oh.

So these letters became recognized as being true and authentic. There were some debates on a couple, three here and there, but the church recognized the word of God. Jesus says in John 10, 27, 28, my sheep hear my voice and they follow me.

So we hear the voice of God in the scriptures. We follow, we recognize what the word is. And basically that's how we know. That's how we got it. That's short and sweet. Yeah, John. For what? I was going 80 miles an hour.

So what was, what was the, what was I talking about?

Well, that's Luke 11, 53. Hear my voice and follow me.

Oh, John 10, 27, 28, thank you very much. You have a better memory than I do, that's good. See, when people say, I don't have a good memory, how would you know? Do you know when you don't? Now, I have had this problem about a month ago.

I set myself to go right over there to do something, not here in this room, but in my office, three feet over, and I forgot what I was there for. That was not good. And I waited. I waited and nothing happened.

I had to go back to where I was and still nothing. So I would do something else. That's a concern. Yeah. I lost two and a half hours of time and I had some probing marks, so. So I don't know, you know, I thought the clocks were off.

It's weird. My wife goes, where were you? Whatever, I just want to watch some aliens movies. Yeah. All right, man, here we go.

Mormonism, the Melchizedek Priesthood, and Witnessing to Mormons

This is on a topic on Mormonism. Mormonism. All right, here we go. I don't know anything about Mormonism. All right, here we go. How can male Mormons justify being in the Melchizedek priesthood in light of Hebrews 7, verse 3?

What does Hebrews 7, 3 say? It talks about the Melchizedek priesthood. You can't have no mother, no father, no genealogy, no record, he's a high priest forever, unchangeable.

Just an expression of how great he was. Yeah, it's an expression. He was just great, that's all. But Hebrews 7, 3 is really good because did Melchizedek really have a mother and father? Because that would imply, if he did not, that he was divine, right?

Like a type of Christ. So it does look like that what's happening with Melchizedek, because Jesus is a high priest after the order of Melchizedek. All right, and Hebrews 6, 20 and 7, 25. So it looks like that's a phraseology used to demonstrate that Melchizedek was a very important individual.

And it would just, without mother, without father, of course he did, he just would say that. So phraseology could be metaphoric, poetic. Some things that Mormons actually can do okay, except the issue of God, salvation, Jesus, Holy Spirit.

Just in those areas. They can get a lot of other stuff okay. They sing pretty well, if you like. That kind of stuff. Tabernacle stuff. You got a question? Yeah, stand up so they can see you. You'd be infamous, or famous, I mean.

Oh, okay. Oh, back up. Back up on the table. There you go.

You're tall, guys. Oh, okay. Top your head off. Witnessing to Mormons is, I think it's like, do you agree that it's like anybody else, that the elect, when reading the word of God, will as, when my sheep hear my voice,.

Eventually the elect will. You can be elect and not be saved till you're 75, but you can be talking to a Mormon when he's 20.

Because. Your recommendation in witnessing to Mormons specifically. What is your starting point? Use scripture.

Use scripture and point to Jesus and salvation. But don't use regular terms. Use definitions. So I talk to a Mormon, I'll say, how are your sins forgiven? I don't say, how do you get saved? How are your sins forgiven?

And then they'll quote me, well, you have to keep the laws and the ordinances of the Mormon church. Which laws? Are you keeping those laws? You're not? Well, doesn't Moroni 10, 1032, say that, Moroni 1032, that you're, actually 2 Nephi 25, 23 says, you're saved by grace through faith after all you can do.

But Moroni 1032 says, if you deny yourself of all ungodliness, then is God's grace sufficient for you? And so I'll say, have you done that? And they'll say, well, no, but God knows I'm sincere. Doesn't say that.

And plus, you can go to D &C, Doctrine and Covenants 82, verse six, I believe it is. Or seven, eight, seven, seven, 82, seven, which says, if you commit the same sins again, then all your former sins return back upon you.

So it's called the impossible gospel. So you can memorize 2 Nephi 25, 23, Moroni 1032, D &C 82, seven and between those three verses, you can run them around in a circle. And then you can go to the Bible and you can go to Galatians 3, 10.

You got to keep all of the law. You know, I give you those verses, maybe you can write them down, but it's a good way to witness to them. It doesn't take much, it's just four verses. And then you can just have them memorized and you can just show them and say, it's from your own works, your own works damn you.

And that's when they're ready for the gospel. Let me tell you the true gospel. Forgiveness of sin is by grace alone because you're not good enough, I'm not good enough. Faith in what Jesus did alone. Law than gospel, that helpful?

Good. Moroni 1032, 2 Nephi 25, 23 and D &C 82, seven. And then if you really are taking notes, you can cross-reference that with Galatians 3, 10. Galatians 3, 10, you got to keep all the law, which is a quote from Deuteronomy 27, 26.

No big deal. And you also want to put in James 2, 10. You know, if you break one law, you've broken them all. Then you might want to throw in, excuse me, Romans 3, 28 and Romans 4, 5. You got all those down, I know it's a lot, but you get those down, you got them.

Romans 3, 28 says, we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from the works of the law. Apart from the works of the law. And I'll show you another trick I've used on Mormons before to help them see things.

But Romans 4, 5 says, to the one who does not work but believes, his faith is credited as righteousness. Does not work but believe. You got to give them that gospel message. And then what I'll do is I'll say to them, you're under the law and therefore you're still under damnation.

And there's other ways to do that. So what are the things I've done with Mormons? It's worked every now and then. Not that here's the formula to really beat them, then you can put a notch in your Bible, that's not it.

But I'll ask them what the gospel is. I used to say universally, the gospel is the laws and the ordinances of the Mormon church. And I would say to them, that's the gospel? Oh yeah, yeah. What are some of those laws and ordinances?

I'm not gonna go into them. I just ask it because I want them to really reiterate. It's the laws and the ordinances of the Mormon church. That's the gospel. Okay, then I'll go to 2 Corinthians 5, or actually go to 1 Corinthians 15, one through four.

The gospel is a death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus for our sins. I'll say, you said it's the laws and the ordinances of the Mormon church. The Bible says the gospel is a death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus.

You got it wrong, because what the Bible says is the gospel. You wanna know why you got it wrong? 2 Corinthians 4, verses three and four. If our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, in whose case the God of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving, so they may not see the glory of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

2 Corinthians 4, verses three and four. Couple that with 1 Corinthians 15, one through four, and the question, what is the gospel? But now, I've noticed that they've started saying it's the death, burial, resurrection of Jesus.

They're learning from the internet and attacks. So, but it's something you have, you know, one of the arrows, so. 1 Corinthians 18, oh yes, preaching the gospel is foolish to those who are perishing. Yeah.

Thank you. May I ask another question?

You just did. Yeah, I did. What's the name of that church in Redding, California? Bethel. What's your take on what's going on at Bethel?

I've been to Bethel Church, went there a couple, three months ago. Got a really nice picture on the way back with a tree and a road, it's really good. You can go on Facebook and check it out. Bethel has problems.

And it's called, in the New Apostolic Reformation, which I've had to put everything on hold recently. I was studying NAR, but I put that on hold to study Molinism, because I believe it's got some serious problems with it.

And some other things happen, so I put that on hold. I need to get finished my Molinism stuff, probably take me a week to write the articles I need if I have nothing else to do, and then get into NAR.

But NAR is like studying Roman Catholicism. It's vast. But NAR, New Apostolic Reformation, which Bethel, Bill Johnson is part of it, teaches that there's a modern day set of apostles and prophets. And they have authority in the church.

They're highly charismatic, women pastors and elders. They often will contradict scripture. Sometimes they don't contradict scripture. It's such a vast array of teachers that you can't say Bob represents Frank.

And it's difficult to get through to them and get through all the information. But it's growing at such a rate that they're supposed to exceed roughly 500 million members worldwide pretty soon. New Apostolic Reformation?

That is a part of that. So I went there with a pastor friend of mine, Chad Prigmore, who preaches right upstairs four o 'clock on Sundays here with his church. We went down there and had a great time.

He's a great guy. And we went to the church and nothing weird happened. But I got some books and I need to go through. I just, I got so much to do and I'm so exhausted basically. It's hard to get through it all.

Not young anymore. To Bethel, and he was sitting in the congregation and he said, is there anybody here who's had trouble with their right shoulder for many years? And he kind of raised his left arm, he's got braces, right?

And just the people around him, they said, just the people around him, put your hands on them, right foot, healed. Praise God. Yeah. And he was like, Eric, I really doubted that. And then I was healed at Bethel, not by someone claiming to be a healer, but just the people around him.

Let me expand a little bit, because there's two things about that. One, you can go to Matthew 7, 22 and 23. Many will say to me on that day, Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name before many miracles?

Cast out demons in your name, get away from me, I never knew you. I'm not saying that's the case there. I'm just saying that's one of the factors we have to look at. It may not be that it was truly from God, it could have been from the devil.

However, I really don't think it was from the devil. I think it was probably true. What I haven't said a whole bunch yet, but I've read through some of the NAR material, and I'll tell you, I like a lot of what they had to say.

And one of the things I've talked to people, and I've said, I do not want to throw the baby out with the bath water, just because they're wacky in some areas doesn't mean that they can't be used of God in some other areas.

The defining of where that line between those things is difficult. So I'm sure there are good things that are going on there. But they need to subject themselves to the word of God. And they need to get the women pastors and teachers out.

That's just unbiblical. They need to stop with this prophet and apostles stuff. They need to get that out. And just stick to the word of God and move in the spirit. That's a problem. But then they'll say there's different kinds of apostles, which is correct.

And they don't equate themselves on the same level as those apostles. I read their material. And their arguments are pretty good in some areas. And I know my stuff. But there's other stuff. Once I have documented, I'll go into on some other areas.

And there's some anecdotes and some other stuff. But it's problematic. There's some problems. But it doesn't mean that there can't be legitimate healings and stuff there. I have ringing in my ears at 80 decibels.

And if I'd have been at the church, do my research, and had a tape recorder there and everything. And my secret lapel video camera. And they said, does anybody here have ringing in their ears? That people prayed for me and it went away?

Yes. Man, yes. I'd love that. Okay. Yeah, praise God. Yes, I'd say it. Yes, it's healed. So discerning between all this stuff, this is not gonna be easy for me to do.

What was it? Discernment isn't determining what is right and wrong. It's figuring out the difference between what's right and almost right. Yeah, that's really what discernment is.

And as well as I know my doctrine, you know what, sometimes with things like that, what are you gonna do? There could be people in there who just love the Lord, are born again, believe in God's healing work, which I do too.

I believe in the charismatic gifts. I'm comfortable in that environment. It doesn't bother me. And if God wants to heal, praise God. You know, I have no problem with a church trying to get more of the spirit of God working in the church.

Why not? We don't demand it. I remember back when I lived in Escondido, where I went to seminary in San Diego County, I could still see this church. It was a United Apostolic Church. Revival, Tuesday, May 8th, you know, 7 p .m.

Oh, that's where the Holy Spirit's gonna be at that time. See, I had a problem with things like that, you know. Revival, this is where it's gonna happen, right here, right now. We've got them reserved, you know.

Can it happen at Bethel? Yes, it can. Can it? Yep, wow. Can God use sinful people? Yeah.

Oh, he's got a camera, he's looking at it. Dang it, I thought he was looking at it. Someone asked if you are going to, or interested in doing any coverage of Rick Warren.

Yes, yes.

Probably the year 2019. I have, the problem is, I have so many things going on, so many stressors going on. The website's been broken for a year, almost now. And we've lost 70 of our traffic. The finances are going down.

We're about to expand into other radio programs. And while that's going on, the radio station I'm at now, they just doubled the prices. There's some other stuff going on, and I can't handle it. So, I got all these stressors.

I'm not able to research, because it takes, when I research, it's, you know, the police caution tape. And I'm in. And, you know, I don't shave for eight days, you know, and lose 20 pounds, because I'm so into it.

But I can't do that anymore, because I got phone calls. I got emails. I got fixing links. I got problems saying, this isn't working, and stuff.

You had a conversation with a man who left Mormonism,.

Rock, do you remember? I remember.

He asked, if you had to guess, what percentage of Christian denominations do you think are actually teaching false doctrines? Lots. I have no idea.

I have no idea. I know that every denomination has more women in it than men. And I know that a lot of the denominations are moving towards women pastors and elders. And so those are movements towards apostasy.

We need to have more men than women in churches. Not that women aren't great, but men should be the ones leading the way. And, you know, what's the percentage? 80%, roughly 80 of the kids who go to a Christian school and a Christian family lose their faith within two years of going to a secular school, college.

The rate of apostasy is immense. And when you look at how many pastors are teaching against Reformed theology, against it, against God's sovereignty, that's another problem. Then you've got the NAR with its problems and some good problems going.

Then you've got people starting to court Roman Catholicism again. That's horrible. And that's the paper with the Amil stuff on it. That says you can check that out, you know, recognize it. Whoever wrote that really knew what stuff, smart guy.

And he's a humble guy.

Your little buddy Jackson that you met at the Atheist Convention,.

The World Religious Convention. Yep.

He just posted on his Facebook page, if rules ever get in the way of loving someone, break them.

So the rule of loving your neighbor.

That gets in the way of loving those who break it? If a rule gets in the way of loving someone, then you should break that rule. That's a book of second testicles?

Yeah, I said that. That is correct. I've been holding it back, but I couldn't resist it any longer. You cannot believe, what's that? This is after hours, this is Q and A, my own time. I'm not on radio.

Yes, I said it. Okay. This guy over here is like, well, he put it, he's gonna believe I said it. When people, you know, when rules get in the way of loving somebody, sometimes having a rule is how to love them.

But what rule? See, it's a generic, it's a fortune cookie thing. You know, when rules get in the way of loving, then break the rules. What does that mean? That is a good response. A stalker or a rapist.

Yeah. Murder, I love you. Yeah.

That's good, Stacia. Well, she got you on that one. On free will versus predestination, is everything... They're not verses, they both work. He's versusing them. Is everything that happens good or bad under God's sovereign control, or is there a time and a chance and a place that's written in Ecclesiastes for everything?

Okay, wait a second, I gotta get that again. First of all, Ecclesiastes, if you read the first few verses, it says these things written under the sun is from a human perspective. Does good and bad happen by God's will?

Yes. He wills all things to happen. He makes the wicked evil for the day of destruction. Proverbs 16, four. Is it good or bad? Both come from the Lord. The Lord hath done... I forgot where the verses are, but yeah.

Nothing occurs without God's permission, either by direct causation or by indirect permission. Those are all within his will for those things to occur. And you can't set free will against predestination.

Predestination is God's bringing the elect into faith. And free will simply means the ability to act in a manner that's uncoerced. What's that got to do with predestination? Predestination doesn't mean that you force someone to believe.